Ducks, museums and a scrummy lunch and the red silk!

still 4th June

After talking so much rubbish we discussed a plan for the day. Ruy and Karen live at Tai Po which is in the New Territories and is a beautiful green area with mountains and sea and islands and wonderful wild life.  More of this later

Karen suggested we go over to Hong Kong Island on the Star Ferry and see the Maritime Museum in its new quarters and the Museum of Medical Science which she said was interested. With such a contrast this sounded great so after breakfast we set off.

The weather is hot and humid and we did not rush about much.  Parking the car on a rooftop car park close to the ferry we first saw a huge six storey high yellow duck. Just like children have in the bath.  You may have read about him. He is quite cute but is rather bizarrely placed in such a prominent place in the harbour

As we walked down to the ferry we walked by crowds of visitors who were having their picture taken with the duck in the background or with the numerous other smaller ducks that were placed on the walkway down to the Star Ferry

The Star Ferries go back and forth over to Hong Kong Island all day taking workers and tourists over the harbour to the main part of Hong Kong City

We landed by the Maritime museum which we visited.  It was really interesting to add some more details to things like the Opium Wars and the tea and silk trade in China.  Granny mentions these in her writing s on many occasions back in the 20s and 30th so it was good to see several references in the museum.

My Great Grandfather worked for Jardines who were traders and they too are mentioned many times  The ships they used are also mentioned in some of the writings and the photographs we have so I will research whether the family ever travelled on the Company's ships when they came back to England.  Who knows.

We were in the museum for some time and then had a scrummy lunch in a harbour side restaurant before taking a cab up to the Museum of Medical Science.  This is an important building because it was build after bubonic plague hit Hong Kong and many people died. Research suggests that is was in Hong Kong that it was discovered that rats were the cause of the plague and there are some gruesome models of medical students dissecting rats and making the discovery that they carry the plague.

There was also interesting displays covering SARS and Bird Flu and altogether the museum gave some interesting insight to these diseases

After this museum we walked down some very old streets in the area that our families had lived in the past.  Lovely old buildings and other evidence of a grander past.

I was surprised that we could be in such a big city, full of high rise buildings and still feel that it was not the overbearing place I had thought it might be.

Lovely day and finished off by a purchase of red and black silk that you may see me wearing at Christmas if I have the courage to take my scissors to it and a visit to a favourite spot of Karen's called the Honeymoon Dessert (I think) fabulous ice-cream based desserts to die for!

A great first day with my cousin and more catching up to come over the next couple of days